1. Field of the Invention
The illustrative embodiment of the present invention relates generally to data communication networks and in particular to web servers within data communications networks. Still more particularly, the present invention relates to providing web-servable content within data communications networks.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the exponential growth in the use of the Internet, an increasing number of businesses now advertise and/or provide business over the Internet. These businesses typically provide web pages with content hosted on servers that are accessible once a connection the Internet is made. Also, as Internet users become more and more mobile (with the proliferation of mobile computers and web access over portable personal devices, such as cell phones, PDAs, and the like), one area of growth has been the demand for remote access to the Internet via access points made available in public and/or private locations.
One area of development has been the implementation of server networks accessible via access points—in the form of either wireless access points implementing the 802.11 Wireless Ethernet protocol (“WiFi”), or hardwired Ethernet connection ports—in public and/or private locations (i.e., away from a home or office base). These access points enable a mobile user with a personal computing device (PCD) to sign in and access information that may be located on a server of the server network or on the Internet. Each such access via the server network is routed through one of the web servers, which is often connected to the Internet. Also, the web servers are frequently connected to a centralized administrative and/or content (CAC) server that operates as a control and/or monitoring point for the server network.
Companies that provide these access points, such as Wayport, Inc., a Texas corporation, have provided thousands of such access points through the United States and Canada. Each of these access points are linked to a specific one (or more) of many hundreds and potentially thousands of content servers (web servers) interconnected in a server network. The web servers are typically loaded with web-servable content by service provider technical personnel or business partners or customers who desire specific content on specific ones of the web servers. This content is stored in a storage facility, such as a filesystem, associated with the particular web server. When a user initiates a sign on procedure at the web server, the user is provided with an initial set of one or more login pages (e.g., “Welcome” or information pages).
As more people utilize local access points to access the greater Internet, the ability of the access point provider (or owner or developer) to target potential customers/clients with information at specific access points has become a valuable business development/expansion tool.
Businesses utilizing these access points to provide their customers with access to the greater Internet typically desire the ability to customize the access pages through which a user of a publicly accessible Internet Access Service must navigate before being allowed access to the greater Internet. The user's status is that of a “captive audience,” until the user has completed the connection process. The presence of this captive audience makes the available “space” on these access pages a comparatively valuable piece of “screen estate.” And, many content providers have an interest in “sub-letting” this screen estate in order to place thereon the content provider's own advertisement or other informational content.
Thus, many businesses turn to the providers of these access points, seeking to exploit the use of these network access points by providing advertising content of the business for display on the login/sign-in pages of the access points (Welcome pages). This business model of displaying business specific information on the Welcome pages provided at the access points enables the business(es) to capitalize on the captive audience of users who connect to (or attempt to access) the access points, perhaps to gain access to the Internet.
Additionally, the owners and/or operators of venues where these public access points are traditionally installed have increasingly endeavored to exert control over the content presented on these web pages. Among the desired control is control of the overall look, feel, and/or branding of the access page. Also, these owners and operators desire the level of control to provide granular customization along the lines of providing (a) specific messages to (b) specific users in, for example, (c) a specific meeting room, for (d) a specific block of time.
A major impediment to providing such a customized service offering has always been the difficulty involved with installing the various files that a web page sources from its hosting server, on individual, localized web servers, given the several thousand servers in a large sever network. This network may be controlled by a single equipment service provider/manufacturer, such as Wayport, which provides administrative, content, and technical support. Conventional methods of distributing such content files involve the secure copying of, followed by remote installation of a number of software packages to each server in the equipment service provider's server network. This individualized installation proves a daunting prospect, particularly when any particular content item may only have been intended for display on perhaps a dozen of these several thousand servers and only for a limited time before the content desired to be provided at that location changes.
With all web-servable content stored in packages that must undergo rigorous testing by both (a) the manufacturer/distributor and (b) the many service partners and clients of the manufacturer/distributor, before the packages may be generally released, the amount of managerial overhead required for any such deployment ultimately made such “one-off” customizations a practical impossibility with conventional methods.